#rap god

part 1

early 90s

warning : swearing, mention of daddy issues (death)

It had been a month since my dad passed away, and here I was, moving to a new state, like losing him wasn't already enough, life just had to throw my mother back into my way.

My mom and dad broke up three weeks after I was born. She left without a second glance. No letters. No texts. No calls. Nothing for seventeen fucking years. And now I was supposed to live with her... and her bitch of boyfriend.

I was pissed. Beyond pissed. I had to leave everything behind my friends, my old life, my boyfriend. Nate and I were still in touch, though. Two years strong. Sure, he had some anger issues, sometimes got a little too aggressive, but we were good. Or at least, I told myself we were.

Anyway, there I was, stuck in the backseat with my mom and her boyfriend up front, my headphones blasting some pop songs loud enough to drown out their voices. I stared out the window, wishing I was anywhere but here, when suddenly my mom waved her hand in front of my face.

"What?" I snapped, pulling one earbud out.

"Can you please take off your headphones? We need to talk, since we'll be living together now," she said with that fake-ass soft voice like she cared.

I sighed dramatically, ripping both earbuds out. Great. Just the sound of her voice was enough to make my skin crawl.

"Well? Talk."

She started rambling about school, house rules, curfews — all that shit — but I wasn't listening. Her words were just a buzzing noise in the background. I didn't care. She lost the right to tell me what to do seventeen years ago.

Finally, after what felt like forever, we pulled into the driveway of some fancy-ass house that screamed "we're pretending to be a perfect family." She and her boyfriend strutted inside like they were proud of it. I dragged myself behind them.

She led me upstairs to my "new room" — a basic-ass setup with a bed by the window, a desk, and a wardrobe. Nothing else. It was nice... but cold. Empty.

As I unpacked my clothes, my chest started to tighten. Tears burned my eyes, but I blinked them away. Home wasn't this. Home was our broken little house in Texas, the one with the leaky roof and creaky floors. The one filled with my dad's laughter and the smell of cheap takeout. The place where my friends would crash after wild parties, where we made memories that didn't need fancy shit to feel real.

I missed it so much it hurt.

I wiped my face roughly and shoved the last of my clothes into the wardrobe before heading downstairs again.

Downstairs, some guy was standing there, talking with my mom and her boyfriend. He turned around when he noticed me. Tall. Dark messy hair. Light eyes. Kinda cute, if I wasn't too busy hating my life.

"Isis, come here!" my mom called like we were some happy sitcom family. "This is Liam, Sebastian's son. Liam, meet Isis."

I gave a half-assed wave, not even trying to hide my annoyance. "Hey."

"Hey," Liam said back. "Wanna come out for a bit? I can show you around Detroit."

Honestly, I didn't see anything better to do. I shrugged and followed him out the door.

As we walked, he told me he was nineteen, born and raised here. He pointed out random places like they were important, but I barely listened. Everything just felt gray.

Then, out of nowhere, someone called his name.

A tall black guy jogged over, slapping hands with Liam like they were brothers. He glanced over at me.

"Yo, dawg, who's the girl?" he asked, eyeing me curiously.

"That's Isis. Anna's daughter, you know?" Liam explained.

The guy nodded. "Ohh, got you. Nice to meet you, pretty girl."

"Hey," I muttered, not really caring to be polite.

They started talking about stuff I didn't understand, and honestly, I wasn't trying to. I was half checked out until I caught a few words.

"You comin' to the Shelter on Friday, right?" the guy asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"She could come too," he said, jerking his thumb at me. "What do you think, Isis?"

I lifted an eyebrow. "What's that?"

Before Liam could open his mouth, I cut him off. "Nah, fuck that 'you're too young' shit. What's a Shelter?"

The guy laughed, clearly entertained by me. "It's a rap battle spot. Local legends pull up. Shit gets wild sometimes."

I smirked. "Sounds better than sitting at home."

"You down then?" he grinned.

"Yeah, why not."

Liam groaned like he already regretted letting me meet his friends. "You'll have to ask your mom, though. I'm not tryna get my ass kicked."

"Alright, Captain America, chill," I said, rolling my eyes.

The guy cracked up. "Yo, I like her. She's funny."

Liam just shook his head, muttering under his breath. Then he looked back at his friend.

"Proof, is Marshall pulling up?"

Proof shrugged. "Maybe. Depends if he's still beefing with Kim. Dude's a mess lately."

"Man, will he ever dump that crazy bitch?" Liam muttered.

I raised an eyebrow at the name Marshall. Who the hell is that boy, how many goddamn friends Liam does have seriously.

The bar that's on repeat in my head today is from "Rap God":

"They said I rap like a robot, so call me Rap Bot (Rap Bot) But for me to rap like a computer, it must be in my genes I got a laptop in my back pocket My pen'll go off when I half-cock it Got a fat knot from that rap profit Made a livin' and a killin' off it"

I'm sure rap fans all understand why this is so brilliant. But for those who are just here for the first time and don't know a ton about rap or about Eminem, let me yap at you for a minute. First of all, the wordplay:

"They say I rap like a robot, so call me Rap Bot" -> He starts by acknowledging one of his most frequent critiques that he gets so technical and intense that he drowns out the beats that are foundational and integral to the genre + By saying "call me Rap Bot" he basically flips this and implies that he is more than human, as a mere human could not maintain the intense flows, doubles, and condensed rhyme schemes Em manages to master effortlessly -> This sets up the premise of the song that he is not simply a rapper, but something more intense, such as a robot or a god. + He does this all while adhering to the beat and highlighting it, not drowning it as critics would claim

The play off genes as jeans -> laptop in the back pocket (of his jeans) = A+ comedy

"My pen'll go off when I half-cock it" -> my words are deadly weapons and don't need a ton of effort to in order to strike you down. + half-cocking is a feature of guns prior to modern safety features -> as an OG rapper, he exists prior to the strict control over speech in the modern age of music + "going off half-cocked" is a slang term meaning to act impulsively and without thinking -> this is a trademark of the whole Slim Shady personality, from whose perspective the song is written/sung + a half-cock is a SAFETY feature on (old) guns that is supposed to prevent a gun from firing when someone doesn't pull the trigger. -> The second Em puts pen to paper, you're dead. Whatever safety features you're hoping will protect you when he decides to come for you will not work or protect you. He is literally unstoppable.

"Got a fat knot from that rap profit" -> THIS LINE IS ABOUT RESPECT!!!!!!!!! Aside from an obvious statement about how he has a ton of money from his rap, which he implies should be proof enough of his skill, he is doing the classic thing he always does, which is pay respect to those who came before him. MC Breed was a rapper who passed in 2008 from kidney issues and who preceded Em. He had a lyric in his song "Comin' Real Again" -> "I'm straight up havin' hard times wanting me a drop-top/And a fat knot, and I ain't tryin' to hear that 5-0 shit," essentially meaning life is shit rn and I just want a convertible, a wad of cash, and to not deal with police BS anymore. + The song "Comin' Real Again" has a feat. from 2Pac himself, so Em is also paying homage to him. How do I know this? Because NOT ONLY does Em repeatedly list 2Pac as a vital influence on his music (including later in this same song), but Pac opens up the song "Comin' Real Again" with "Guess who's back" AKA THE WORDS OF THE HOOK TO ONE OF EM'S MOST FAMOUS SONGS, "WITHOUT ME" ("Guess who's back, back again.") + The song "Without Me" is about how rap as a genre wouldn't be the same without him (Eminem), but ALSO ACKNOLWEDGES IT WOULDN'T BE THE SAME WITHOUT THE LIKES OF TUPAC AND MC BREED. -> HE IS LITERALLY BRAGGING AND PAYING HOMAGE AT THE SAME TIME!!! AHHHHHHHHH WHY DON'T MORE PEOPLE TALK ABOUT THIS?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?‽ ESPECIALLY WHEN EM SPECIFICALLY WANTS YOU TO TALK ABOUT IT! HE WANTS YOU TO GET THE REFERENCE SO THAT YOU CHECK OUT THOSE WHO CAME BEFORE HIM AND PAY YOUR RESPECTS TOO!!!!!

"Made a livin' and a killin' off it" -> This pays my bills and is my job but also I do much more than pay my bills because I got filthy rich off this shit because I'm a singular talent and you MFers could fucking never + This is also a threat, like the rest of the verse. -> The double here basically implies that Em has killed careers with his words and skill (RIP to Ja Rule, et. al.)

AND THAT'S JUST THE WORDPLAY

"Rap God" came out in mid-October 2013, and since this song is a general warning at the younger generation of rappers who discount his skill, let's take another popular rap song from a then-young artist in 2013. Though released in 2012, the #1 rap song by the end of 2013 according to Billboard was Macklemore's and Ryan Lewis' "Thrift Shop."

Macklemore is famously lacking in the rhyme scheme department.

Macklemore basically has no rhyme scheme or word play, and his scheme is so simple I can annotate it with just Tumblr formatting. Even ignoring his lazy ass intro which is basically just the word "what" over and over and non-rhyming four-line chorus, the first actual verse is literally just end rhymes:

"Now, walk into the club like, "What up? I got a big cock" Nah, I'm just pumped, I bought some shit from a thrift shop Ice on the fringe is so damn frosty The people like, "Damn, that's a cold-ass honky" Rolling in hella deep, headed to the mezzanine Dressed in all pink 'cept my gator shoes, those are green Draped in a leopard mink, girl standing next to me Probably shoulda washed this, smells like R. Kelly's sheets (piss) But shit, it was 99 cents (bag it)"

And the only words here that aren't full slant rhymes are "green" and "mezzanine" Don't get me wrong. I love a good slant rhyme. But if end-rhymes are your ONLY rhyme scheme, it's a little lazy imho. He's not bending words like Em does (like famously rhyming "orange" with "door hinge"). Macklemore, on the other hand, just picks words with vowel sounds that are close enough and calls it a day. No particularly deep wordplay. And that verse ends at 1:06. One minute and six seconds for a weak ass, lazy surface-level simple rhyme scheme. There's a weak mid-slant rhyme between "deep" and "mezzanine," but it's a bummer he didn't bend and highlight "pink" in the following line to condense the scheme a bit more. Meanwhile, Em follows the same structure of songwriting...in fact. the more I look at it, the more convinced I become that this is a direct callout of Macklemore. He too starts with a long, wordy intro and a four-line chorus followed by an actual verse (which includes the Rap Bot) line. But Em's is a complex, condensed rhyme scheme packed with meaning and doubles and triples and doesn't even comprise his whole first verse. But the portion I highlighted at the top of this post is fully done at 45-seconds in.

Em slayed, threatened, punned, payed homage, bragged, and educated in 45-seconds. 1 minute and six seconds in, Macklemore is still setting up the fucking atmosphere and doing fuck all. No wonder this nonsense triggered Shady to reemerge!!!!! After all the shit he went through to be taken seriously? I'd be pissed as hell too if I saw the people for whom I laid the groundwork came out with this lazy nonsense! You saw my annotation of Macklemore's weak ass rhyme scheme... This is Em's.

You can see a real-time breakdown of the scheme here.

Need I say more?

Pairing: Eminem x Fem¡Reader

Warnings: 🔞 MATURE READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

Recommended song: Remind Me - Eminem, In Too Deep - Eminem

Author's note: Hey, guys! I was so bored and I wrote this. I may delete it later or idk. Hope you all enjoy it. I love you guys so much! Sending all of you a warm hug🫂🤍

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